The leading cause of house fires is electrical malfunctions, for example, electrical arcs and sparks in the electrical utility circuits. Parallel electrical arcs and sparks may form when current flows through one conductor to the next through insulation. This type of current, also known as leakage current, may travel in arcs and sparks to ease its passage through the insulation. Electric arcs and sparks may form when a single wire is damaged to withstand the current, and the current may travel in arcs and sparks through the damaged portion and into the insulation surrounding the damaged portion. The fire from these sparks and arcs may spread into other components within the outlet and items outside the outlet, thereby creating an easy source for a house fire.
The conventional safety features, such as a circuit breaker, may not be sufficient to mitigate potential fire hazards. For example, when there is an electrical arcing, the current or arcing may not be high enough to trigger a circuit breaker to trip. In other words, a significant amount of arcing may be required to trip a circuit breaker, and by the time the circuit breaker is tripped, the outlet box may have already developed a fire, which may then spread outside the box. Once the fire has spread, tripping the circuit breaker to create an open circuit may not help in extinguishing the fire.